Live music silenced at city bar after new neighbour complains about noise

Friday, 16 December 2022

Dux Central owner Richard Sinke, left, and operations manager Ross Herrick say they are gutted at having to scrap live music.

A wealthy businessman has forced what he calls a “hick bar” in central Christchurch to scrap live music after he moved into the neighbourhood and pointed out the noise was breaching legal limits.

Sid McAuley has vowed to “spend any money that’s required” and even take legal action to make sure Dux Central on Lichfield St does not resume live music gigs after they were dropped this year.

“If they want to punch me in the nose, I will punch them back,’’ he said.

Dux Central had been hosting live music for several years, but then McAuley moved into a top-floor apartment nearby.

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Dux Central is in the white building on the left, while Smash Palace is on High St in the centre of frame.

He complained to the Christchurch City Council about the noise and then sent a letter from his “solicitors and barristers” stating the bar was breaching the limit of 60 decibels.

“I am not going to have my personal life messed about by some hick bar,” he said.

Coolpak Coolstores managing director Sid McAuley came out swinging last week against live music in the Christchurch CBD, but has lobbied Selwyn District Council to raise noise limits and require neighbouring properties to have sound insulation for the company’s Rolleston facility (File photo).

“They won’t beat me because I will spend any money that’s required to make sure they comply.

“We will take them to court if necessary.”

McAuley, who is managing director of chilled storage company Coolpak, said the noise from the live music was “absolutely terrible”.

He commissioned acoustic engineers to measure the noise from his rooftop garden over a weekend and found the sound breached the limits in city planning rules.

Mike Yardley says the District Plan needs to be updated to reflect where the city’s nightlife actually sits, rather than where it was initially theorised post-quake.

“I know the absolute facts,” McAuley said. “I deal in facts.”

Dux Central operations manager Ross Herrick said he was “pretty gutted” to drop live music after more than five years of regular gigs. Takings had fallen about 12% for Saturday nights without it, he said.

“It has definitely changed our business model.

Then Prime Minister John Key, left, chats with Sid McAuley at a National Party conference cocktail party in 2009.

“Without the live music our clientele leaves a bit earlier. We used to keep them through to 11. Now they are leaving at 9 or 9.30.”

But he said there was little they could do to fight.

“He is a wealthy man.

Smash Palace is on the same block as Dux Central and has shifted its gig times to avoid noise complaints.

“He has the means to make things very difficult.”

The row comes as Christchurch’s live music venues lobby the council to change planning rules. They want more protection from noise complaints made by new residents in the central city.

A council spokesperson said that staff were considering changes to the district plan as a result, but they would be “subject to direction from the elected council”.

The district plan allows for noise up to 60dB at Dux Central’s location. McAuley said those rules were in place when the bar opened there seven years ago.

“If they have established their business in the wrong area, that is their problem. They haven’t done their research.

“I fully understood the district plan and the noise limits when I purchased that apartment…and knew that I could live with that.”

Smash Palace owner Johnny Moore, whose bar is on the same block as Dux Central, said he had moved gig times to avoid complaints.

“As there are more residents in the neighbourhood, we have got to cut the music much earlier in the evening,’’ he said.

“We don’t know what we are going to do. A lot of powerful people have a lot more say [on planning rules] than bars.”

Herrick said live music venues were essential to keep Christchurch vibrant.

“Young people will leave. Why would they stay here when they can move to Wellington?”

Existing uses should be protected in the city centre, he said.